


Special Care Packages

by kaseiki



Category: Fire Emblem Echoes: Mou Hitori no Eiyuu Ou | Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia
Genre: F/M, implied labor, kind of a continuation of the last one but better, postwar once more, shoot me in the face if it's bad bc I know it is
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-18
Updated: 2017-07-18
Packaged: 2018-12-03 23:19:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,141
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11542515
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kaseiki/pseuds/kaseiki
Summary: How he did not ultimately faint, in the end, is a mystery to everyone involved.





	Special Care Packages

The first thing he notices is how quiet the child is—defenseless, fragile: yet peaceful, and calm.

Extensive research has taught him that this was normal to expect from a baby—though, this one proved to be much calmer than what he'd been originally expecting...

Like... _very_ calm. _Extremely_ calm. Almost makes him question as to whether or not he's really holding a plastic doll in his arms.

Never mind the fact that he is shaking beyond belief, even while sitting in a chair across from the bed of an awfully exhausted woman laying flat on her back. She looked horribly weary in that quiet little room, what with her eyes sealed shut, and her chest rising softly. Beads of sweat formed around her temples make her hair look sloppy, and insanely _unruly_ —

But despite it all, however, he could still hear her breathing—gentle, and at ease. It'd been a long day, really, and it had barely even started.

Mae had been feeling particularly sick that morning, and Boey ( being the man he so often proclaims to be ) had offered to take the reins of looking after her. It would make the task of fishing for a nice catch at the harbor a bit more difficult, but her wellbeing was on a greater scale of importance than anything the sea had to offer that day.

As suggested by Father Nomah just a few months before, Boey would take her to the priory upon the island on a daily basis so a small group of clerics could keep watch over the expecting mother — doing their normal routine whilst checking on her round the clock.

During the times that they weren't around, idle conversation between the two would be made in hopes of sullying the anxious air of waiting for that very moment. When two would become three, and there would be a new mouth to feed — names being suggested ( and _rejected_ ), and excitement being found over something they'd never even think to become, before.

It'd been the happiest he's ever seen her — even by the time her words had slowed down, and she'd grow quiet again ( only to hum delightedly to herself with the biggest smile on her face ).

At one point, though, Mae's smile had completely fallen—her hands ghosting to her stomach, as though she'd eaten something horrible. She looked to the mage, but seemed to bite back whatever she was trying to say.

Boey assumed she might've needed some water, or at least another pillow....

...But not once did he think that it’d mean she was going into labor. By the time it would end up clicking, she was already about ready to fall right out of bed — finding little reason to hold back the pains that now forced her to clutch her stomach like her life _depended_ on it.

He hadn't know the first thing about such a task, and ( at _first_ ) ran about in a panicked frenzy to seek help from those within range of his shouting ; previously having nearly fainted a couple of times before finally finding the strength to purge ahead. The clerics are quick to rush to his ( frantic ) aid, doing as they were taught whenever villagers from Novis could not afford ( or _risk_ ) to give birth by themselves.

Childbirth was a _horrifying_ sight to behold, and only through the slits of his fingers would Boey _brave_ through it until the end — hearing screams _louder_ than any nightmare he'd ever dreamed of, and sounds that made every ounce of his appetite bury itself in the pits of his stomach. How he did not ultimately _faint_ , in the end, is a mystery to everyone involved. 

But it made all the difference as a single wail had penetrated through the very walls of the priory; sound bouncing from one end of the room to the other, until it settled into subtle whimpers. The sounds of the _damned_ died down, and the wall of clerics having been formed around Mae now crumbled from the outside — one of them holding a small bundle in her arms.

A _special care package,_ so to speak, if he is to remember the words she'd described it as just nine months before. 

When they motion such a thing to him, he'd looked behind him in a daze, and pointed to himself. His hands have already begun to shake without fail, thinking the child to be nothing more than a vase made of glass than an actual human being.

"I...can't _possibly_ hold them. Why not Mae, instead?"

( The poor girl was tuckered right out, so that was a _no-no_ ).  
  
Tireless convincing on the clerics' parts would've had to have been made before this man decided to accept ( trembling arms and all ). It was _do or die_ , and he wasn't looking forward to kill the mood any further than he already had.

The more Boey looked at the newborn in his arms, the more he _indeed_ saw Mae ; the rosy cheeks, the button nose — the awfully round face that made them both look so _adorable_ ( but none would really know who they really looked like until the moment their eyes finally opened )! One of their tiny little hands curled around his index finger, and stayed there even while the man had moved it back and forth to see if they would respond.

When nothing came of it ( except a _curious_ crinkle of faint eyebrow hairs ), Boey had soon decided to turn to Mae; whose eyes were suddenly open, and remained locked on the two of them as though they were a painting in the middle of a museum ( for some reason, she found joy in their interaction, despite the fact that it had barely begun ).

It makes the next question he’d been _hoping_ to ask her make a temporary stop amidst his hesitance—but, nonetheless, he grows the courage to talk.

“What will you name them, Mae?” He murmurs this rather quietly, in case the little one desired the peace and quiet he was displaying right now. 

  
The woman in question only remarks the inquiry with a smile, and a beckoning hand that drooped too low for his liking. It was clear to see that she was still very exhausted, up close, but Boey made no attempt to sully the sudden giddiness in her eyes; something that never left her, even in times like this.

She whispers gently in his ear as the name unfurls from lips drawn with a _childish_ glee—a name she hoped to spread to the world, and embellish with gold. A name she hoped would bring joy to anyone’s ears, like the swift spring breeze in the greenery of a summer meadow—

Or, _y'know_ —one that would make them both smile everyday.

To associate them with such a wondrous name filled Boey's chest with a thrilling sensation.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading~


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